Homemade Oreos with a Candy Cane Cream Filling

December 6, 2012

Good Morning HBL readers! It’s Melissa again from Bless This Mess. It’s so nice to be here.

Raise your hand if you love Christmas. Ok, good. What’s the first thing you think of when you hear the word “Christmas”? Cookies?! ME TOO! I love cookies all year, but it seems like they get a little extra spotlight this time of year. Long live the Christmas Cookie!

If you are looking for a little something extra to put on your neighbor goodie plates or to take to that cookie exchange then these homemade oreos with a creamy candy cane filling are for you. Sure you could buy something, but this homemade version is sure to impress (and tastes better to boot).

The rich dark chocolate cookies pair wonderfully with a the creamy mint filling. They are also phenomenal dipped in chocolate and served cold. You can’t really go wrong with the mint chocolate combo. This recipe is a winner! Santa might even leave extra presents for you if you leave these bad boys out for his midnight snack on Christmas Eve. Pleasing Santa is never a bad thing in my book.

In a stand mixer, with a cookie paddle attached, cream the butter and sugar together on medium speed until the mixture is light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add the cocoa powder, salt, and vanilla and mix until incorporated. Add half of the flour and mix. Add the remaining flour, 1/4 cup at a time until you get a pretty dry dough. Don’t be worried if the dough is a bit dry…we want a cookie that doesn’t spread when baked and is crispy. Divide the dough in half and pat together to form a disk. Cover the disks in plastic wrap and refrigerate for about 15 minutes.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Remove plastic from one disk and roll your dough out between two pieces of parchment paper or on a lightly floured surface until it is about 1/4 of an inch thick. Use a 2 inch circle cutter to cut out the cookies. Place on a cookie sheet and bake for 8-9 minutes. It’s super hard to tell when a near black cookie is done. I baked mine for 10 minutes the first round and they tasted burnt on the bottom, so you’ll need to adjust as you go. Repeat with the rest of the dough. Place the cookies on a wire rack to cool.

While the cookies are cooling, prepare the filling. In a food processor or blender process the unwrapped candy canes until you have a very fine candy cane dust. Add the candy cane dust to the bowl of your stand mixer. Add the butter, vanilla, and half of the powdered sugar. Beat on medium-high speed until well combined and fluffy, about 2 minutes, scraping down the sides as needed. Add the remaining cup and a half of powdered sugar and combine. Add milk or cream as needed to get a very thick, but spreadable filling. Put the filling into a pastry bag with a large circle tip.

When the cookies are cooled, match them with a mate according to size. Take one cookie and pipe a circle of filling, about the size of a quarter, in the center on the flat bottom of the cookie. Take the mate and place it on top (flat sides together) and press it until the filling comes to the edge of the cookies. When the filling was squished to the edge of the cookie it was a little under a half inch thick. Repeat with the remaining cookies.

Serve with lots of cold milk.

Notes:
If your world is crazy like mine and 3 hours instead of 15 minutes pass before you get back to baking, let the dough rest at room temperature for 15 to 30 minutes. The butter makes the dough super stiff if it’s too cold.

Mmm. Don’t those look so good!

It’s been a busy and tasty month since I last checked in. I thought it would be fun to show you what I’ve been up to in a collage form. The links to the posts can be found beneath! Enjoy.